HOSTILE TONES FOR A FRIENDSHIP ARCH

Special to the New York Times

Published: October 7, 1986

WASHINGTON, Oct. 6—
When the scaffolding is cleared in November, the Chinese arch with the greatest span in the world will straddle a street that is not in Peking or Shanghai, but in Washington.

Though shop and restaurant owners in a Chinatown that is tiny by New York or San Francisco standards welcome the business they believe the arch may bring, not everyone is pleased. The chairman of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, for one, calls it a ''Commie arch,'' and the association has vowed to build a rival three blocks away.

Mayor Marion S. Barry Jr. last year presented the plans for the arch, now near completion on H Street Northwest. He called it a symbol of the connection between Washington and its sister city, Peking. The structure, with red and gold tiling, is being built by a team of Chinese and American engineers and its cost of $1 million borne by the two cities.

''We are not Communists, and we do not want to accept a gift from a foreign Communist government,'' said Lawrence Y. Locke, chairman of the Benevolent Association. Mr. Locke, who came to the United States from China in 1948, said he worried that visitors to Chinatown would assume that the shopowners were Communists. Being branded a Communist, he said, is a sure way to see business drop off.

According to Mr. Locke, a second arch would remind tourists of the merchants' loyalty to the Nationalist Government on Taiwan, which he considers the rightful ruling leadership of China.

Shuwen Hou, the deputy director of the Peking Ancient Architectural Company and director of the group of companies working on the arch, laughed at the mention of a rival. ''This is not a Communist arch,'' she said, through an interpreter. ''It is a Chinese arch made in an ancient Chinese tradition. Why do you have to have a second arch?''

The architect for the project, Alfred Liu, said the span of the arch, at 61 feet 4 inches, would be by far the largest in the world. The length is attributable to the use of reinforced concrete and steel.

Emma Lee, who manages China Doll, a restaurant in the arch's shadow, acknowledged that some members of the community had objected. But, she said, it has brought in some customers, and, except for traffic congestion caused by construction, Ms. Lee had no reservations.

Mon Suey Lee, who runs a Chinese grocery a block away, said he thought it had already helped his business and expected that its completion, along with a trade center adjacent to it, would help even more.

Mr. Lee also thinks the rival arch would be a good idea. If one arch brings in business, Mr. Lee reasons, two will surely bring in more.